Fun and silly fads, please share

[RedAngie]

Painting over perfectly good brick. It's like laying wall to wall carpet over a hardwood floor.

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My parents’ new home in 1973 had beautiful hardwood floors in most rooms, plus various width pegged hardwood floors in the family room.

Within 6 months, most of the hardwood was covered with wall to wall carpeting. Some shag! You were considering poor if you didn’t have wall to wall.

About two years later even the family room floor was covered with wall to wall.

In the late 80s they ripped out the carpeting in the family room and used area rugs. But most other rooms remained covered, although replaced over the decades.

After my father died in 2015, I had a real estate agent list the house for sale. I told her there was pristine hardwood under the carpet and she was ecstatic.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

nehru jacket, leisure suits and stacked heel shoes. As far as toys there was clackers and lawn darts. Who thought either one of those was a good idea?
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Lawn Jarts. One man's bad idea is another man's excellent device for eliminating stupid from the gene pool.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

I had a pet rock, I loved thing. Think I still have it somewhere.

As a child of the 80s, these will forever be my favorite fad.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I had a pet rock, I loved thing. Think I still have it somewhere.

As a child of the 80s, these will forever be my favorite fad.

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I remember the sticker trading fad too!!! I seem to remember stickers with cute fluffy animals being a big deal, and scratch and sniff.

 

[design_mom]

Buying pre-shredded pants. I've seen lots of crazy fads over the past almost 80 years, but I think this one, for me, is the craziest I've seen, and still see. Pay more for pre-worn out pants.

My college-age daughter (and her female cousins) all love the ripped jeans. My 80+ year old father almost always asks them if they need money to replace their worn-out pants. It's a running joke between them and now they notice if he DOESN'T mention their jeans.

I saw this meme and thought it was hilarious:

Does anybody remember the Silly Bands (they were shaped rubber band kids wore as bracelets). Those were popular when my kids were in elementary school, and the bane of teachers' existence, I'm sure. And, oh the drama if one broke or got lost.

 

[jimmymc]

Drawing mustaches on fingers was a big thing when I was in school. No idea why.

 

[maxaroni]

My college-age daughter (and her female cousins) all love the ripped jeans. My 80+ year old father almost always asks them if they need money to replace their worn-out pants. It's a running joke between them and now they notice if he DOESN'T mention their jeans.

I saw this meme and thought it was hilarious: View attachment 848539

Does anybody remember the Silly Bands (they were shaped rubber band kids wore as bracelets). Those were popular when my kids were in elementary school, and the bane of teachers' existence, I'm sure. And, oh the drama if one broke or got lost.

Love that with your daughter and her cousins, too funny. Anyway, my son had the Silly Bands, Crazy Bones & of course, Pokémon cards. The Crazy Bones started when he was in kindergarten, I believe. New packs would come out and the kids begged their parents to go to the store to get some.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Does anybody remember the Silly Bands (they were shaped rubber band kids wore as bracelets). Those were popular when my kids were in elementary school, and the bane of teachers' existence, I'm sure. And, oh the drama if one broke or got lost.

I'm too old for that particular fad, but remember them. It just reminded me of the Fad for black rubber bracelets worn about ten at a time a la Madonna in the Lucky Star video. That was when I was a teenager in the early 80s. We also wore black shoes with white slouch socks.

 

[dizneegirl]

I probably still have a half armful or so of those black rubber bracelets somewhere. And a net headband or two to tie into a big, messy bow.

 

[#1hoosierfan]

Swatch watches

 

[kanerf]

Not my era, but I remember a few years ago that all of the teenage girls would walk around wearing a pacifier.

 

[NotUrsula]

Another silly jeans fad…

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The bottoms would be soaked when it rained.

My niece was part of this one. One of my other nieces, 20 years older, refused to be seen in public with her wearing those jeans, not because of the width, but the length; it was part of the style that they had to be dragging the ground, and she was constantly tripping and dragging mud everywhere she went.

FWIW, wide-leg jeans do flatter most people, but there is a formula to the proportion that the average person does not know. The correct width for a "wide-leg" pant to keep the look in proportion is no wider than 1" more than the length of your shoe. This style was WAY off.

 

[BayouQueen]

Is anyone old enough to remember Creepy Crawlers and Fright Factory?
You put liquid gel stuff in molds, cooked until solid, and traded them at school. Somehow we never burned our fingers using the hot oven thing to cook them.
Loved ‘em.

 

[kymom99]

Leg warmers

 

[Beezle2]

How about over done scrapbooking pages? I got into it heavy and spent so much money on the hobby. I'm trying to downsize now and I have these huge photo albums with 12x12 pages and 1 photo.